Close-Up, How to Read the American City

Rating:
Summary: An Accessible Guide to Thinking About Cities
Review: Close-Up is a fun and friendly guide to thinking about American cities generically. With it you can begin to understand why cities look the way they do, why they are organized the way they, and ewhy they change the way they change. I have used this book teaching urban theory to both undergraduates and graduate students, and they have found it eye-opening; it made them see their city in a whole new way. The drawings are fun and informative. Though this book was written in 1973, which makes some of its examples dated, the insights it gives into urban form are not dated at all, and should be useful well into the 21st century.